On the morning of August 21, the 29-year-old was misplaced on his strategy to the examination centre the place he was to jot down an entrance check for Grade IV authorities posts in Assam. The candidate, who didn’t want to be named, lives in Sorbhog in Barpeta district. His examination centre was 85 kilometres away in Nalbari district. Usually, he would use Google maps for instructions. However on that day, there was no web.
The Assam authorities had suspended cell web companies in 24 of the state’s 35 districts “within the curiosity of holding free, honest and clear recruitment examination[s]”. Based on the federal government notification, web companies had been to be blocked from 10 am-12 pm after which from 2 pm-4 pm that day. Based on the 29-year-old candidate from Barpeta, nevertheless, the web stopped working round 8.45am.
“I used to be fortunate I left dwelling early and managed to seek out the centre with the assistance of native folks,” he mentioned.
One other candidate mentioned the web didn’t come again until 5 pm that night. She needed to return from Nalbari to her dwelling in Barpeta Highway. She grew anxious as she couldn’t even verify practice timings on her telephone.
For a lot of residents of the affected districts, day by day earnings took successful. Anup Deka, a 30-year-old primarily based in Guwahati, who works for an app-based taxi service, mentioned he earned solely Rs 70 on August 21. Normally, he mentioned, his day by day earnings vary between Rs 500 and Rs 1,300.
“My cell web was not working between 9.30 am and 4.30 pm, it was an enormous loss for me as we rely on day by day earnings,” mentioned Deka.
Ismail Ali, president of the All Assam Cab Operators’ Union, mentioned there have been about 9,000 Ola or Uber drivers within the state who depended on the web to perform. Many needed to cease work that day.
The final time Assam noticed a widespread web ban was in the course of the violent protests towards the Citizenship (Modification) Act, handed in December 2019. Because the state was convulsed with protests, the ban handed with out remark. This time, there’s widespread resentment.
Take Kandarpa Das, an irate Guwahati resident, who felt it was pointless harassment of strange folks. “It reveals that the examination conducting physique has no religion in its personal checking system,” he mentioned. “If it’s so crucial, they’ll use a jammer as a substitute.”
Raju Prasad Sarma, a Kamrup-based social employee, has now filed a writ petition within the Gauhati Excessive Courtroom with the help of the Delhi-based Web Freedom Basis. The petition challenges the web shutdown order for August 21 and August 28, when the subsequent examinations are scheduled.
IMPORTANT: We have assisted Mr Raju Prasad Sarma, a social employee from Kamrup, Assam in submitting a writ petition in Guwahati HC to problem the #internetshutdown ordered to happen in Assam on Aug 21 & 28. The shutdown is to forestall dishonest in exams!
1/2https://t.co/nxcJ1FVu0H— Web Freedom Basis (IFF) (@internetfreedom) August 23, 2022
The order
Days earlier than the examinations had been to be performed, Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma directed officers to make sure the graceful conduct of examinations for Grade III and Grade IV posts.
The state is conducting recruitment assessments for practically 30,000 posts. Altogether 14,30,337 candidates are anticipated to look for the exams to be held in 25 districts on August 21 and 28, and September 11. The Board of Secondary Schooling, Assam, is conducting the examinations.
The federal government order, dated August 18 and asserting the shutdown, was signed by Niraj Verma, principal secretary (dwelling and political division). It utilized Part 5(2) of the Indian Telegraph Act, 1885, with the Momentary Suspension of Telecom Service (Public Emergency or Public Security) Guidelines, 2017, to droop cell web companies on August 21 and 28.
The order famous that on earlier events “unscrupulous parts resorted to unfair means utilizing completely different cell functions resembling Fb,WhatsApp, Twitter and YouTube, and so on, that are primarily based on web connectivity”.
It additionally mentioned the measure had been taken on the suggestion of the secretary of Assam’s board of secondary schooling. “There are 14.30 lakh candidates and that is the primary time within the historical past of Assam so many candidates are showing in an examination,” mentioned the secretary, Narnarayan Nath, chatting with Scroll.in. “You’ll be able to’t examine this with the Class X or XII board examination. For the reason that variety of posts can also be lots and the variety of candidates are excessive, an additional precaution is important.”
RC Jain, chairman of the schooling board, added that the web ban was crucial as a result of among the candidates may need been helped by kin exterior the examination corridor.
Assam has a troubled observe document on the subject of conducting public service examinations. In 2020, the Bharatiya Janata Occasion-led state authorities confronted extreme criticism after the query paper for a police recruitment examination was leaked on WhatsApp simply 12 minutes earlier than the examination. The statewide recruitment check then needed to be cancelled. Earlier this yr, query papers for a sub-inspector recruitment check additionally went viral on social media.
A senior Assam authorities official, who didn’t need to be recognized, mentioned web bans had been crucial, even when they triggered inconvenience.
“There are numerous earlier situations the place questions had been leaked on cell web,” he mentioned. “Little doubt, the web ban causes issues for others but it surely was essential to ban the web for a half day or three to 4 hours as miscreants make the most of the ability. You’ll be able to suppose it’s harassment however it’s crucial.”
No public emergency
Assam isn’t the primary state to droop the web throughout public examinations. Earlier this yr, the Calcutta Excessive Courtroom stayed the West Bengal authorities’s order to close down the web throughout Class 10 board examinations.
The Telegraph Act and telecom guidelines enable web suspension in a public emergency or for public security. The Supreme Courtroom has clarified that “public emergency” means a state of affairs that impacts most of the people and requires fast motion and “public security” means securing them from hazard. Furthermore, the federal government can solely achieve this if it feels there’s a menace to nationwide safety or sovereignty, to protect “pleasant relations” with one other nation or to protect public order.
Gyan Prakash Tripathi, who works with the Web Freedom Basis, referred to as the Assam authorities’s shutdown “unlawful” and “disproportionate”, citing the Supreme Courtroom’s and the Calcutta Excessive Courtroom’s orders.
“Each the act and the foundations allow an web shutdown if there’s a menace to public security or if there’s a public emergency,” he mentioned. “Easy conduct of examinations doesn’t fall in any of those classes.”
Each web ban impacts the basic rights of residents, Tripathi argued, and might solely be applied in particular, narrowly outlined circumstances, not in accordance with the federal government’s “whims and fancies” and for mere “administrative comfort”.
“Indians have the basic proper to free expression, and to hold on lawful commerce below the Structure,” Tripathi mentioned. “The existence of those constitutional elementary rights over the medium of the web was recognised and upheld by the Supreme Courtroom in 2020.”
Guwahati-based lawyer Anubhab Atreya identified that the telecom guidelines had been amended in 2020 to say that web shutdowns shouldn’t exceed 15 days. He additionally noticed that the constitutionality of the suspension guidelines had been challenged in a public curiosity litigation within the Gauhati Excessive Courtroom.
“If web suspended for grade 4 job recruitment examination, what’s going to occur throughout exams for grade 1 jobs?”
“Curfew”
Summed it up #AmarAsom #Assam pic.twitter.com/HlDNZh2b0R— sushmita goswami (@sushmitagoswami) August 22, 2022
Honest and clear examinations?
Based on Manash Pratim Baruah, a member of Combat Towards Injustice of APSC – a discussion board for “disadvantaged candidates” – the Assam authorities’s measures didn’t communicate effectively of the transparency and equity of the exams.
He additionally pointed to different flaws in the way in which the examinations had been performed. “The candidates will not be even allowed to take dwelling their very own query paper,” Baruah mentioned. “How can a candidate verify the correctness of [their] reply in the event that they received’t even get their very own query paper?”
Most authorities exams have a number of alternative questions. Baruah mentioned the federal government wanted to declare official reply keys earlier than outcomes had been introduced and to permit candidates to complain if any of the official reply keys had been incorrect.
He recalled that a number of errors had been discovered within the reply keys of the Mixed Aggressive (Preliminary) Examination performed by the Assam Public Service Fee in 2018. The matter remains to be in court docket – altogether 21 writ petitions have been filed difficult the preliminary examination.
